Philosophy, Democracy, Inequality

The fundamental equality of human beings is among the basic commitments of the Declaration of Independence. And yet, by many key measures, citizens believe that the level of inequality in the US is far greater than it should be. This course addresses the questions: What do we mean when we describe people as equals? What sorts of equality are there? What forms of equality are required for a just society? What sorts of inequality are compatible with justice? In this course, we will study these questions by considering accounts of the degree and causes of contemporary economic inequality, of the nature political equality, of the relation between markets and inequality, and of the relation between equality and freedom. We will read texts from John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Thomas Piketty, and Elizabeth Anderson.